Scintillating Scotland trounce Bolivia in final World Cup warm-up match and make their own statement

In the national team's final warm-up match before the tournament begins next week, Scotland chalked up a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Bolivia at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison.

Scotland won, and they won very well. This was everything and more head coach Steve Clarke and the Tartan Army wanted ahead of their Group C opener against Haiti in Boston. Scotland were attack-minded, scored goals, got more minutes into the legs of ring-rusty players, kept a clean sheet, acclimatised further to the American heat and - crucially - avoided further injuries.

Clarke started in a 4-4-2 formation with Lawrence Shankland and Che Adams a strike partnership. Both had scored by the half-hour mark. On his 70th cap, Scott McTominay got in on the act. Ben Gannon-Doak performed well on the right flank and would have enjoyed the run-out after injury. He terrorised Bolivia's defence. The likes of goalkeeper Angus Gunn and right-back Aaron Hickey got valuable game-time, albeit they weren't tested defensively. Bolivia looked like a team that would rather have been on Neptune than in New Jersey.

It is worth pointing out that Bolivia, who missed out on the World Cup in the Intercontinental play-offs, were here for a end-of-season friendly. They were rotten. Rank rotten. Away from their capital La Paz, where they benefit from altitude, their form is questionable. Their oldest outfield starter was 28. Inexperience and little motivation coursed through their ranks. They were pulverised by a hungry Scotland side.

Much was made earlier in the week of Haiti's 4-0 warm-up win over New Zealand. Scotland made their own statement. A Carlo Ancelotti-esque eyebrow will have been raised in Port-au-Prince, probably in Marrakech and maybe even in Rio. The Scots looked liberated, enjoying themselves and on the front foot. Their first-half performance was one for the ages.

Shankland opened the scoring and Adams landed a brace. They are now in pole position to start against Haiti on Sunday morning. They seized their opportunity. Clarke said pre-match they had looked good in training but he wanted to see what they could do "when not against their mates". They are the men with the jerseys.

Andy Robertson won his 94th cap at left-back. Grant Hanley and Jack Hendry were the centre-halves. In front of them, Lewis Ferguson partnered McTominay in the middle, with Ryan Christie tucked in on the left flank. The likes of Kieran Tierney and John McGinn came on at the break. Where do they fit into the starting XI? One for another day, a welcome conundrum.

Scotland run riot in the first half

Scotland got off to the perfect start on five minutes. Robertson played a neat one-two with Christie, got to the bye-line and stood up a well-directed cross that found Shankland at the back post. The new Rangers signing timed his leap perfectly and guided a header high past Bolivia keeper Guillermo Viscarra.

The second goal arrived on 23 minutes. Gannon-Doak's cross to the back post was recycled into Shankland, who teed up McTominay. This was not his cleanest strike but it bobbled towards Viscarra's right-hand corner and the Bolivian keeper made a meal of saving it, fumbling the ball into the net.

Gunn was called into action for the first time on 29 minutes, plunging to his left to clutch a long-range effort from Daniel Ribera. It was a routine piece of goalkeeping but given that he had barely touched the ball, it was a welcome one for man that prior to this game had played 135 minutes in the whole of 2026.

Scotland went 3-0 up on the half-hour mark. Bolivia's defence was bedraggled and Scotland were taking full advantage. Gannon-Doak tore down the right flank and cut the ball across the goal to the unmarked Adams, who blasted it home.

Bolivia were exasperated. Midfielder Roberto Fernandez, booked moments earlier for wiping out Gannon-Doak, had a nibble at McTominay's heels. The only concern now was avoiding injuries. As a contest, the game was done.

Scotland wanted a fourth before the break. Adams did the job right on the stroke of half time, taking in a Gannon-Doak pass and hammering the ball past Viscarra after Bolivia's hapless defenders could not stop him.

For the first time since the 6-1 win over Gibraltar in 2016, Scotland had scored four goals in the first half.

Robertson and Christie were withdrawn at the interval for Tierney and McGinn. Hendry nearly headed home from a corner on 51 minutes and then in a rare moment of danger, Gunn had to beat away a Guilmar Centella free-kick.

Shankland's shooting boots deserted him when slotting wide from eight yards out after a good cross from Tierney on the hour mark. He was replaced afterwards as part of a quadruple sub. Gannon-Doak, Hickey and Adams also made way, with George Hirst, Ross Stewart, Anthony Ralston and Findlay Curtis coming on.

The match was now petering out. The splurge of substitutions from both sides had disrupted the rhythm. Scotland's work was done, though. Dom Hyam, John Souttar and Tyler Fletcher came on for Hanley, Hendry and Ferguson. Clarke was emptying his bench, a stroll in the sun now for the Scots. No more goals were forthcoming despite Hirst firing just wide towards the end.

Scotland now head to Charlotte, their base for the World Cup, before facing Haiti in Foxborough on the outskirts of Boston in what many see as the game that holds the key to Scotland's progression at these finals.

It will get harder. Make no bones about it. But this was the dram of optimism the nation craved ahead of the World Cup.

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